15 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic in 2016

This is 2016. This means that many businesses are examining their daily operations, marketing strategies, and productivity, to find ways to grow during this awesome year. One area where many businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals would like to see growth is with blog traffic. Website traffic can directly lead to an increase in potential customers, sales, or online exposure.

As with personal New Year’s resolutions, you should set goals for your business or website. With a new year right around the corner, this is the perfect time to discover 15 ways to increase your blog traffic in 2016.

#1 – Create a Set of Business Cards

Everyone should have their own business cards. You never know when you are going to meet someone that works in the same industry. You may come across a blogger with a large following, a business looking to promote their product on a website, or other potentially beneficial contacts. Always have business cards ready to hand out when you are networking.

#2 – Create Branded Products

Along with business cards, consider creating branded products. This could include anything from posters to t-shirts. There are many websites available that will place your logo and business information on various promotional items for a minimal fee. Pass these out to potential customers or run giveaways through social media.

#3 – Create a Physical Newsletter or Magazine

Creating a physical newsletter or magazine could also help your blog gain some recognition and new readers. Pass out your magazine at a local store or coffee shop. Perhaps you know someone that would not mind having a few copies in the waiting room of their office.

It is easy to focus on online marketing when you are managing a blog. You spend time promoting your blog through email marketing lists, building backlinks, and other common forms of online marketing. Instead of relying solely on the power of the internet, turn some of your attention to physical advertising.

#4 – Share Everything on Social Media

Whenever you release a new post, you should share it across every social media platform that you use. Also, remember to share more than once. For example, if you share the post in the morning, not everyone that follows you is going to notice your post. Spread out these posts, but try to share a link several times.

#5 – Share Links to Relevant Content

You should be sharing more than just links to your own content. Find content relevant to the topics you regularly discuss and share links on social media. Try to help your followers by offering information that is not available on your website. This helps to build trust and shows your followers that you are about more than just promoting your own blogs.

#6 – Build a Subscriber List

If you have a blog and do not yet have an email subscriber list, then this is the year to finally start putting together a newsletter. By offering visitors something of value, such as a downloadable PDF or access to an instructional video, you can gain more subscribers. When you offer something that contains a real value, your visitors are more likely to share this information with friends or share it through social media.

Send out regular newsletters to the people on your subscriber list. Keep your visitors updated about new blog posts, as well as new products, services, and promotions or deals.

#7 – Join Various Facebook Groups

There is more to utilizing the power of social media than posting about your latest blog. Using the Facebook Page that you created for your business or blog, start joining various Facebook Groups related to the topics that you cover on your blog. Actively engage in conversation with people in these groups and share useful information.

Do not use these groups as an avenue to promote your own blog, but to find other people with similar interests. If they like what you say in the group, they will check out your Facebook Page to learn more about your blog.

#8 – Become More Active on Reddit

When you think of social media, Facebook and Twitter are probably the first two sites to come to mind. In addition to using these common social media platforms, make sure that you are using Reddit. Find relevant subreddits to share links to your blog posts and to discuss topics with people that share similar interests.

#9 – Comment on Other Blogs

Blog commenting is a common form of link building; though, it can also help you gain new visitors. Make sure that you leave helpful comments. The author of the blog could delete your comment and ban you from leaving future comments if you use their comment section as a tool to promote your blog.

#10 – Become Active on Online Forums

Online forums are another great resource for finding people that may be interested in your blog. Use these forums as you would Facebook Groups. Share relevant information, discuss topics with other people, and focus on joining the discussion rather than shamelessly promoting your blog.

#11 – Get Help from Friends and Family

Friends and family can always be a good resource for free promotion, but do not go overboard. Ask some of your friends and family to occasionally share a link on social media to one of your blog posts. Have each person share a post with two or three people that they think would benefit from the information on your blog.

#12 – Research the Demographics of Your Visitors

Find out who is visiting your website and reading your content. You can use analytics software and resources, such as Google Analytics, to learn more about the demographics of your visitors. Find out the average age range, whether they are male or female, and their education level. This will help you gear your content towards the interests of a target demographic.

#13 – Use Good SEO Techniques

Make sure that you are using proper SEO techniques. You should never let this get in the way of your writing, but after you have drafted your post, take the time to ensure you are using good search engine optimization tactics. Create a focus keyword and ensure it is used properly.

#14 – Use Quality Photos in Your Blog Posts

Reading long blog articles that only contain text can become dull for some readers. Include graphics, such as photos or illustrations. There are plenty of ways to find free images, but using a commercial stock photo website offers a simple and affordable solution. You will have access to higher quality images for a very low fee. Or you can read our previous article about finding free image to you on your blog without breaking the copyright law.

#15 – Focus on the Quality of Your Content

The final tip for increasing blog traffic in 2016 is to focus on the quality of your content. If you write informative articles, people will find them useful. This increases the likelihood of someone sharing your article on social media.

You cannot expect to gain new readers if you are regularly releasing low-quality articles that offer no real value. For several years, bloggers have used the mantra, “content is king”, and there is no reason that this will not apply in 2016.

Gaining blog traffic can be a real challenge. There are plenty of ways to draw visitors to your website, but many of them require hard work. The main thing to remember is that you need to stick with your plans. You cannot expect results if you do not follow through with your strategies. Consider using some of these suggestions to boost blog traffic in 2016.

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18 thoughts on “15 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic in 2016”

Interesting post. I will definitely return here in the future. You’re right that Gaining blog traffic can be a real challenge. Although I don’t think it’s impossible. I, particularly interested in #15 where you talk about the quality of your content. This is an area I would love to improve but I am not sure how. In your experience what tips could you give a beginner like me? http://startearningpassiveincome.com/

Well excellent article its very help us and we impressed , its very interesting post thanks for this post sharing to all, get best management suggestions and best software also provide to all in this blog, sure this blog will useful

Always enjoyed reading such article.Nice tips to get more traffic towards our blog.Thanks for this.
Great post, so much value in this work of art.
If the content is what the audience wants and needs, then clicking is also more likely. Keep up the great writing!

Cleaning up your side bar also improves speed.So you get a two-for-one benefit with that. ha!

I think the Call to Action is so important. We tend to forget that we bloggers would like the reader to take action after reading a post – like subscribing for more info. Nice touch listing that at the end of your post.

Something else that helped my clients is compressing images before publishing them. Images can take a long time to download, especially on mobile devices.